Arena Football Players File Anti-Trust Lawsuit Against Teams.Sports Editors/Football Writers &Columnists WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BW SportsWire)--Feb. 4, 2000 Professional arena football players, fighting back against unfair take-it-or-leave-it contracts that are the product of an anti-trust conspiracy, have filed a class action anti-trust lawsuit against the Arena Football League (AFL AFL: see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. ) and it's member teams in federal court today. The suit, filed in the Federal District Court of Newark, seeks to redress unlawful practices by the arena football teams that prevent free-market competition for players' services. The players are seeking a court injunction to create free agency and triple damages for the injuries they have suffered. The suit claims that the AFL teams, in violation of federal anti-trust laws, have joined together to eliminate competition for players' services, to prohibit injury and other contractual guarantees, to fix the terms of employment for each player at unfair and uncompetitive levels, and to otherwise deprive players of the same freedom to offer their services to competing employers that other professional athletes enjoy. James Guidry, the first of six named plaintiffs A named plaintiff is one of the small group of individual plaintiffs in a class action who are identified by name and who stand in for and represent the interests of the larger group of people who comprise the plaintiff class. to the class-action suit Noun 1. class-action suit - a lawsuit brought by a representative member of a large group of people on behalf of all members of the group class action , said, &uot;The AFL teams have conspired to push players down, push salaries down and to deny us any injury protection/but we are fighting back. The AFL teams force us to sign away all our rights while giving players minimum job security. It's just not right.&uot; Guidry is also the president of the newly formed Arena Football League Players Association that, along with the United Food and Commercial Workers The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is a labor union representing approximately 1.4 million workers in the United States and Canada in many industries, including agriculture, health care, meatpacking, poultry and food processing, manufacturing, textile and International Union (UFCW UFCW United Food and Commercial Workers ) and the National Football League Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is the labor union of players in football's National Football League. It was founded in 1956, but only achieved recognition and a collective bargaining agreement several years later. , is supporting the player's class action suit. |
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